


Whiskey Courage

by WhiteLunchBox



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Fluff, My First Fanfic, Please be gentle, Pre-Relationship, smut comes later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 07:35:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6229381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteLunchBox/pseuds/WhiteLunchBox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nora decides to down some liquid courage so that she can tell MacCready how she feels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first time writing fic. You all are amazing at what you do, so any suggestions or comments would be welcome! Thanks again, hope you like this.

“I’m so glad we’re doing this RJ” she had poked him in the ribs with her knuckle at the word “this” and he wasn’t really sure what she meant, his eyebrows rising at her use of “RJ”. He had thought it odd when she had bought a bottle of whiskey from Whitechapel Charley as he hadn’t seen her drink more than a beer here and there, but who was he to question the Boss when she said she wanted to drink?

  
“Doing what?” the poke in his side hadn’t distracted him from pouring out two more shots with a steady hand, the dirty Third Rail table wasn’t going to be soaking up any of their hard earned booze.

  
“This, bonding or whatever.” MacCready glanced up at her as he handed her another shot, she was smiling that wry, self-depreciating smile she did when she fuc- messed up at something basic about wasteland life. She laughed a lot, more than he was used to anyone laughing, and didn’t mind doing so at her own expense. Her blue eyes were a bit glossy; but she didn’t seem drunk. “You really intimidated me in the beginning. Did you know that?” He couldn’t help the startled laugh that escaped at her words, the flush he could feel rising along his neck.

  
He never would have imagined that this woman would have been intimidated by him. Nora was strange. Probably the strangest woman he had ever met, even weirder than the vault dweller he had known when he was a kid. She had these ideas about how things were supposed to be and she couldn’t be moved from them. He’d seen her go nose to nose with a papa deathclaw just because bringing his egg back was “the right thing to do”. Half the time she ended up doing work for free, and seemed happy to do so. He had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t giving herself a share of the caps they ended up with. When he met her a few months before she had walked right up to him in that ridiculously impractical vault suit and had the, well, the pure iron ovaries to haggle with him about his price. The flush threatened to travel further up his neck, thinking about her in that vault suit. The totally impractical, totally form hugging vault suit. He shifted in his seat, covering the smile that lit on his own lips with the back of his hand after taking the shot.

  
“Yeah I can see all my raw masculinity as intimidating for a lady like you,” he deadpanned while looking away hoping it wasn’t too much, glancing back after hearing her bark out a laugh. He knew he’d never cut an imposing figure, not like that douc-, jerk… guy, Danse. She was pouring them another set of shots; he could see the flush across her high cheekbones. Was she blushing from what he had said, or was it the whiskey? “Is it warm in here MacCready?” She quickly unzipped the thick leather jacket she wore over a cotton tank top. Nora shrugged the jacket off and stuffed it into her bag. She was sweating and the material of the shirt had started to turn transparent in places. Sharply inhaling, MacCready averted his gaze.

  
Curiosity settled on his shoulders, egging him on as he lit a cigarette for himself. “Ok, I’ll bite, why were you intimidated?”

The wry smile was back, and her eyes danced around. She looked like she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell him, or maybe she was just searching for the right words. Clearly stalling for time she took the shot and grimaced slightly.

“Well you know, I don’t really know what I’m doing out here MacCready. I make a lot of mistakes and you sure as hell make note. But what- “She was picking at some invisible dirt on the knee of her pants, eyes averted. Oh man, this isn’t at all where he was semi drunkenly trying to take the conversation. He butted in before she could go on, making him feel any worse.

“That’s bullsh- crap and we both know it. You’re doing fine. You’ve learned to shoot so much better than you did in the beginning…and you’re not as much of a softy as you were before. We’re earning caps now. Come on.” He stood, closing up the whiskey and putting it into his bag, then picking up both their packs. He could tell their evening was shot to hel- heck, they might as well head to the Rexford where they had already rented a room.

  
She followed him up the steps and outside without a word, obviously a bit unsteady on her feet. Of course, it was raining. He paused under the overhang to light another cigarette. As he bent to try to get the flame to catch in the windy alley, he felt her knuckle him in the ribs again, this time he jumped, almost burning himself.

  
“What gives?!”

  
“You didn’t let me finish.”

She was looking up at him from under her lashes, her chin tucked down ever so slightly. The hand that had knuckled him was still resting on his side and she was standing so close he could feel her body heat. Something was happening and MacCready wasn’t sure if his whiskey soaked mind if he was ready for it.

  
“Yeah you’re kinda … a jerk. Yeah you’re a jerk, but that’s not why I was intimidated,” she leaned forward, slowly and carefully like only the drunk do. All the whiskey had obviously caught up. Whatever was going on, he couldn’t really take this seriously, could he? He blinked hard, wondering if she was about to kiss him. Instead her lips bumped his ear as she spoke; he almost missed what she was saying because the feel of her body pressed firmly against his had totally distracted him.

“You’re so hot and you don’t even know it!”Before he could string words together coherently to give her a response, she had moved away from him, walking quickly through the rain toward the Rexford.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MacCready can't get Nora's drunken confession out of his head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took on a little bit of a mind of it's own. I had something quick in my head but as I was trying to write it...well, it didn't work out that way. This is what I ended up with so far....I'm sorry it jumps around a bit, I hope it's not too confusing. Also I hope the spacing issue is fixed!!

MacCready sat nonchalantly on the hood of a rusted out Corvega, trying to look casual as he lit a cigarette.  The car had come to a halt just as it was about to smash into a store, and it's hood was a pretty convienant place to sit if you wanted to look at your reflection in the unbroken glass of the clothing store.  Nora was picking through the pockets of the raiders they had just eliminated for Greentop Nursery, _again_. Dam- dang raiders were worse than radroaches. 

Glad that she had her back to him, he allowed himself to smile around the cigarette as she jumped over a fallen streetlamp like a little kid. Man, she was weird. Light on her feet and moved well though, he’d give her that.

The dirty glass of the storefront at his elbow reflected him dimly.  “You’re so hot and you don’t even know it!” She was full of it when she was drunk, obviously.  The man in the window next to him was not very impressive, let alone what anyone would call hot.  Short and way too skinny, sun weathered and a natural frown sitting on his face. His fingers scratched through thick but dirty brown hair before his hat was deposited back on his head.  Some kind of weird prewar woman’s drunk joke. Had to be. As a rule, women didn’t come on to him. Especially not prewar women with good nutrition and straight teeth. Not women with bodies that caused all the traders and scavers and pretty much everyone else they passed to do a double take. He glanced back to where he last saw her as if to get confirmation that she was privately laughing at him. 

The boss was squatting, her thighs apart. The stupid white sea captain hat she was so fond of wearing was on the ground next to her and arms were high in the air, hands busy pushing her hair back out of her face which was tipped back to use gravity to help her. 

_The boss…Nora, was on top of him, pressing down and squirming in his lap, head thrown back as he was lightly nipping and sucking at one of her full breasts._

Pushing air through his teeth MacCready jumped to his feet and threw down his cigarette, stomping it out like it was his traitorous thoughts. 

 

~~

It was getting worse.  The boss and he were falling into such a comfortable rhythm. When it came down to a firefight, he could look at her and she’d seemingly read his mind, running to get around the enemies’ flank. Afterwards he’d find himself laughing with her, mimicking some kill he had made. They argued about comics. She let him boast about things and didn’t give him a hard time about it. He had told her about Winlock and Barnes and she hadn’t even hesitated to offer help.  If he let his mind wander, however, it wasn’t her growing battle prowess or confusing kindness that would be at the forefront.  More and more he found himself imagining what it would feel like to come up behind her as she was rummaging in her bag, one hand sliding up under her shirt towards her breasts, the other tight around her small waist as he pressed himself hard against her full behind.  What her skin would taste like. The noises she’d make if he was between her legs.  

 

~

“Ugh don’t be such a loser Boss, Grognak could totally beat the Silver shroud in a fight,” he reached over and flicked the brim of her hat playfully, his shoulder bumping hers.

“You’re the loser if you think the Silver Shroud wouldn’t just shoot him.”

“That’s preposterous-“

“Wow, preposterous!  An awfully big word for you MacCready, did you look that one up?” She dodged away from him halfheartedly, leather jacket creaking in the evening cold.

“I know you’re going to make fun of me,” she held a hand up to silence him before he could rush in with some quip, “But I’m flippin exhausted MacCready. Do you think we can hole up in one of these houses and get to Sanctuary tomorrow?”

He smiled at her use of “flippin”. Concord wasn’t the safest of areas, but the sky was threatening rain on top of the icy cold weather and he could do without walking the last miles soaked and freezing.

“Sure Boss, whatever you want.” He was about to pick one of the row-houses at random when she walked directly up to one, tossing him a look over her shoulder that glinted with trouble.

“This one looks good!”

Hardly any light filtered in through the cracks in the boarded up windows and MacCready squinted against the dust motes, gun drawn. There was something bulky on the nearest kitchen counter, and he gritted his teeth, expecting a feral. Suddenly everything was bathed in soft green light, the soft _wuvv_ sound of Nora’s pipboy illuminating the darkness.

“Happy Birthday MacCready,”

The kitchen counter had several boxes of Fancy Lads Snack Cakes, two nuka cola quantums (his favorite) and something else that was quickly obscured by Nora.  She was talking and he was missing it.

“You said you didn’t really know your birthday and I found something the other day so I just decided it would be fun…” she was ripping open the boxes of snack cakes and piling them on a plate with her back to him.  He rose up on his tiptoes ever so slightly to look over her shoulder to see what else was on the counter.  The sniper rifle he has been eyeing at Arturo’s, all shined and beautiful, was there. He couldn’t believe it. What was this? She was talking again…no she wasn’t. She was singing. She spun around with a gleeful smile on her face, small brightly colored candles stuck into a couple of the cakes.  His heart felt like it was glowing in his chest brighter than all those little candles.

“Haaaaappy Birrrthday tooooo yoooooooooou! Blow them out RJ!”

He did.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry- I've had writer's block. This was pretty difficult for me to get out.
> 
> I always thought I was a decent writer until I started reading what you all can do, and I realized I'm barely getting by. - B

Nora trudged up the metal stairs behind the Starlite movie screen, looking for a quiet place to bed down for the night. The settlers would have insisted she take one of their beds, and that just wasn’t something felt like arguing about. 

 

The chill of the metal flooring initially seeped through her threadbare bedroll, making the aching muscles of her lower back clench ever so slightly, but after a few moments under the heavy quilt Connie Abernathy had made for her, she was comfortable enough. Lighting a cigarette, she heard a clang from below, meaning someone had opened the door and was heading up the stairs. Soft glow from the twinkling stars, full moon, and haphazardly strung up lights in the settlement made it easy to discern RJ’s face bobbing into view. She propped herself up quickly on one elbow, a stream of smoke pushed through her lips. 

 

“Please don’t tell me that Wilba sent you up here to hassle me about her brahmin again.”

 

“I have bad news Boss,” Maccready wasn’t wearing his hat, and damp still stuck to his thick brown hair where he had evidently dunked into a rain barrel to scrub his face. The only thing he carried with him was a mostly full bottle of whiskey, which looked suspiciously like the one she had bought on that rather embarrassing night months ago. Nora made room for him on her blankets as he sat down, and quickly threw one end of the Abernathy quilt over his legs, careful not to let too much heat out. They rearranged themselves so they could sit backs to the footlocker.

 

“Wilba did approach me, and there was a brahmin mentioned,” He took a swig from the bottle before holding it out toward her nonchalantly, but she noted he wasn’t looking at her as he was talking, something he did when nervous. Nora pretended not to notice. “but she didn’t directly send me here to hassle you.” 

 

They had been criss-crossing the Commonwealth for weeks now, checking in at various settlements, keeping as busy as possible. She didn’t want time to herself to think, to dwell, on the dark thoughts that would come if she wasn’t exhausted. All that aside, the only plan for the next few days was to head to Sanctuary, and that wasn’t pressing for early morning. She supposed she could brave a hangover. 

 

The whiskey went down like fire and she coughed despite herself. RJ turned his face away, but she knew he was silently laughing at her. 

 

She made him repeat the whole conversation with the settler, the bottle passing between them. She had gotten comfortable with the merc over this past year, arguably more comfortable than she had ever been with Nate. Looking back, she realized that Nate had always kept her at arm's length, his old money decorum never allowing his wife to be much in his life other than a symbol, a means to an end. A mother to his child. She took another deep gulp from the bottle.

 

RJ was imitating Wilba’s heavy smoker’s voice, his own cigarette punctuating his sentences in the air like the old woman, hamming it up to make Nora giggle. They snickered together for a few moments, and his shoulder bumped Nora’s without pulling away as they faded into silence.

 

What was his deal anyway, coming up here with that bottle? The last time they drank like this she had admitted she found him attractive, drunkenly trying to articulate the fact to him, as his self esteem made him oblivious. He was just as alien to her as the rest of the wasteland, so young yet also so old. Extremely wise in some ways, yet totally experienced in others. She found the mix endearing. Nora had been mortified and awkward the next few days, but when RJ failed to mention it, hell, failed to act on it, eventually things slipped back to normal and she had reigned in her attraction as much as she could. Even reigned in, she couldn’t help the giddy feeling in her chest when he grinned.

 

Music floated up from a radio below, a smattering of happy voices talking. Warmth had spread from her stomach, and she was feeling pleasantly tipsy, playful, bold.

 

“Ugh. I kinda hate it here at Starlite, RJ.” 

 

“What? Why? You did good here Nora, plenty of people have a safe place to call home.”

 

She shook her hand in the air like she was clearing smoke, dismissing the settlers, and finished taking another swig. 

 

“Stupid memories. I got my first kiss here at Starlite, ” she made a vague gesture downward after plunking the bottle down near his blanket covered knee. 

 

“Yeah I could see the toxic wastewater in the middle really doing it for ya.” Turning toward her, his gaze slid to her lips and then back up to her eyes again. 

 

“The brahmin killing puddle wasn’t there yet, Wilba would have been thrilled, ” He smirked at her joke, and the full weight of the attraction she had been fighting off for month crashed down upon her. She paused a beat, and feeling brave added, “You spend a lot of time guessing what does it for me?”

 

A wave of surprise washes over his features, followed by a sheepish smile. 

 

“Is it that obvious?”


End file.
